Scene from a lake

Directly across from the main gate of Lake Monticello is a large field, formerly a forest, which is now nearly barren as giant earth movers, behemoths like the ones so vividly described by Steinbeck, have leveled nearly every tree and laid waste to the land.
As I walked near there this morning, a family of four deer crossed the main road from the lake and walked toward their old home which exists no more. The two fawns stood flanked by their mother doe and their buck and seemed to be looking at their parents for guidance. All four stood in the midst of this red-clay nothingness and barely moved. As I watched silently for nearly 10 minutes, the deer continued their motionless staring, wondering what to do, where to go. It was as if they had been reduced to lawn ornaments.